Art Museum to feature puppet show, exhibit

The IU Art Museum is welcoming a collection of puppets from Java that will be on display on the second floor of the Museum in the Gallery of the Art of Asia and the Ancient Western World.

Today is the first day the collection will be on display, and it will remain open to the public through Dec. 2013.

The exhibit is presented in conjunction with “Stories With Shadowy Figures,” a puppet show that will occur Sunday, Oct. 27, from 2-4 p.m., in the Thomas T. Solley Atrium in the Art Museum.

Assistant professor of theatre and shadow puppet performer Jennifer Goodlander will present a Balinese shadow puppet performance and an art-making activity inspired by the Indonesian puppets in the gallery.

Goodlander’s dissertation, with funding from a Fullbright Fellowship took her to Indonesia, where she studied women and the performing arts in Bali.
She ended up focusing on wayang kulit, which is more commonly known as shadow puppetry.

Currently, Goodlander is reworking her dissertation into a book that is tentatively called “Women in the Shadows: Gender, Puppets, and the Power of Tradition in Bali.”
In her dissertation and tentative novel, Goodlander argues that puppetry and gender are linked.

Goodlander’s demonstration and performance Sunday is free and open to the public, and all materials for art-making activities will be provided.
Light refreshments will also be available.

— Amanda Arnold